The wedge-shaped site is located adjacent to Day Square and Chelsea Street in East Boston, with the narrower end offering a cityscape view of the Boston skyline. With a future multi-family development planned across the square as well as the addition of a MBTA bus stop, we considered place-making opportunities on the ground level. A stepped roof and south-facing façade design maximizes access to exterior spaces, and also opens up more daylighting and desirable views.

Inspired by the rich history, scale, texture, and sense of permanence evident in the many the turn-of-the-century post and beam mill buildings throughout Boston, we proposed a brick clad building that encases contemporary mass timber framed spaces within metal and glass volumes emerging at the stepped rooftops. The stepped façade allows the massing of the project to conform to the wedge-shaped site and provide articulation assimilating to the context of bay- or bow-fronted buildings. These steps also opportunistically create alternating balconies and views of the Boston skyline from each unit.

H I G H L I G H T S 

• Mass Timber structural frame and possible hybrid - CLTs, Glulams, panelized stick-built load-bearing walls

• Passive House

• Transit-Oriented Development

• Boston Mass Timber Accelerator Recipient

C O L L A B O R A T O R S

Bald Hill Builders